Eye-on-Retail Daily Tipsheet Archives

“Wal-Mart Toughens Supplier Policies” by Shelly Banjo at WSJ. “The tougher new policies replace the Bentonville, Ark., retailer’s prior “three strikes” approach to policing suppliers, which gave the suppliers three chances to address problems before being terminated. Starting March 1, Wal-Mart will employ a “zero tolerance” policy to sever ties with suppliers that subcontract work to factories without the retailer’s knowledge; Its previous “three-strike” policy gave suppliers three chances to comply with Wal-Mart’s safety requirements…”Obviously our three-strike policy wasn’t working as well as it could have,” Rajan Kamalanathan, Wal-Mart’s vice president of ethical sourcing, said in an interview. “Our message of zero tolerance is meant to get people’s attention.” Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323301104578256183164905720.html

“Costco’s Secret Codes For Special Discounts; Look For 97 Cents” by George Gombossy at ctwatchdog via HubPages. “Normally, according to HubPages, prices end with 99 cents. But when it ends with 97 cents it means the item is a closeout and you will save more money, maybe a little, maybe a lot. But don’t just look for the 97 cents, look for for other unusual prices, like 79, 49, or 89 cents. “These usually mean that these items have a special price on them because Costco got a special deal from the manufacturer. In other words they were a special purchase and the buyers really killed their vendors for this price,” says the article. Now if you see an asterisk * on the top right side of the price sign, it means that Costco is not reordering the product. So if you like it, stock up on it. Read more: http://ctwatchdog.com/finance/costcos-secret-codes-for-special-discounts-look-for-97-cents

“Amazon Woos Advertisers With What It Knows About Consumers” by Jessica Leber at Mashable. “Google built its $38 billion business selling ads based on how people search and browse the web. Facebook, too, uses what it knows about its one billion users to sell targeted ads. But when it comes to what many advertisers value most — what people actually buy, or what they may want to buy soon — there may be no better data than the information in Amazon’s 152 million customer accounts. Since last year, the world’s largest online retailer has been packaging information on what it knows about consumers so that some marketers can use it to make split-second decisions about where to buy ads online and how much to pay for them. This automated process occurs on real-time ad exchanges that sell ad impressions as a person loads a web page.” Read more: http://mashable.com/2013/01/21/amazon-woos-advertisers-with-what-it-knows-about-consumers/

“Ahead of the bell: Google’s 4Q to give ad insights” at Seattle Times via AP. “Google’s fourth-quarter earnings report should provide a barometer on how much more advertising shifted to the Internet during the holiday shopping season. The results, due out after the stock market closes Tuesday, will also give investors a better sense on how the growing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers is affecting the prices in the digital advertising market.” Read more: http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2020185790_apusgoogleaheadofthebell.html

“Nielsen: Global Consumers More Likely to Buy New Products from Familiar Brands.” “Sixty percent of global consumers with Internet access prefer to buy new products from a familiar brand rather than switch to a new brand, according to a new study from Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy…While 77 percent of global respondents say word-of-mouth advice from family and friends are the most persuasive source of new product information, active Internet searching (67%), and traditional television advertising (59%) remain influential. Globally, respondents say the Internet is very or somewhat important when making a new product purchase decision for food and beverages (62%), personal hygiene categories (62%), personal health/over-the-counter medicines (61%), and hair care categories (60%).” Read more: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20130121005056&div=-1245645151

“Walmart Visitor Center sees increase in visitors, exhibits” by Julie Bagley at The City Wire. “Now, up to 150,000 visitors a year walk through the interactive history of the company and how it came to be the world’s largest retailer. There are approximately 3,800 artifacts in display cases along with touch tables as well as interactive displays of the company’s expansion into the international market as well as Sam’s Club and Neighborhood Market.” Read more: http://www.thecitywire.com/node/26115#.UP6AXydEHX4

“Samsung’s road to global domination” by Michael Lev-Ram at Fortune. “To understand how Samsung — yes, Samsung — became America’s No. 1 mobile phonemaker and thorn in Apple’s side, it’s helpful to rewind to last fall. On a mid-September morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook stepped onto a stage in San Francisco to unveil the iPhone 5. Several hundred miles away, in a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in Los Angeles, a group of marketing executives from Samsung Electronics followed real-time reactions to Cook’s remarks. They huddled around tables mounted with laptops and TV screens, carefully tracking each new feature and monitoring the gush of online comments on the new device via blogs and social media sites. As the data flowed in, writers from the company’s advertising agency, who were also camped out in the restaurant turned war room, scrambled to craft a response.” Read more: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/01/22/samsung-apple-smartphone/

“Store of the Month (Dierbergs): From the Bottom Up” by Jim Dudlicek at Progessive Grocer. “…Two escalators take customers to and from the main level of the store, while a third, cart-dedicated conveyor — dubbed the “cartolator” — moves customer carts from the main level to the garage…The store has hosted live wellness Twitter chats, complimentary store tours and tastings for individuals with gluten allergies, and a sold-out class with chef Eric Brenner, chief culinary officer of New York-based Bold Organics, which produces a frozen gluten-free pizza. “We hosted a meet-and-greet session with Hungry Girl, the Food Network’s Lisa Lillien, that attracted more than 300 fans,” Padousis adds.” Read more: http://www.progressivegrocer.com/inprint/article/id5362/store-of-the-month-from-the-bottom-up/